conditions  in  the  Saar.  Amongst  the  personalities  with  whom  he  claims  to  have  had
discussions  are  Lord  Layton,  Lord  Pakenham,  Mr.  J.  B.  Hynd  and  Mr.  R.  W.  G.
Mackay.  He  alleges  that  he  found  interest  in  the  United  Kingdom  for  a  petition
which  the  Saarbund  is  hoping  shortly  to  submit  to  the  Council  of  Europe.  The
Saarbund  began  to  acquire  prominence  early  this  year.  It  is  a  body  comprised
mainly  of  emigrants  from  the  Saar  or  persons  expelled  by  the  Saar  Authorities.  Its
chairman  is  a  Roman  Catholic  Priest,  Pastor  Bungarten,  and  its  Secretary  General
is  Herr  Heinz  Voigt,  an  employee  in  Herr  Becker’s  Frankfurt  textile  business.  Prinz
zu  Lowenstein,  of  Heligoland  notoriety,  is  also  one  of  its  members,  of  whom  there
are  believed  to  be  about  1500  in  all.  There  is  evidence  that  the  Saarbund  is  financed
by  the  Federal  Ministry  of  all-German  Affairs  as  well  as  by  certain  German
industrialists  with  interests  in  the  Saar.  Another  type  of  pressure  which  is  being
exerted  consists  in  the  publicity  given  in  the  German  press  to  the  reported  refusal
by  the  French  administration  of  the  Saar  mines  of  a  wage  increase  for  the  miners
which  had  apparently  already  been  accepted  by  an  arbitration  committee  of  the
Saar  Ministry  of  Labour.  Such  publicity  is  evidently  designed  to  inject  this  wage
question  into  the  Franco-German  political  differences  about  the  Saar.
7.  If  the  German  approach  to  the  Council  of  Europe  should  prove  abortive,  there  is
every  likelihood  that  the  present  German  activity  over  the  Saar  may  be  intensified
and  supplemented  by  increasingly  strident  propaganda  until  the  Saar  elections  in
the  autumn.  This  will  scarcely  be  conducive  to  that  general  reconciliation  between
France  and  Germany  which  it  is  the  aim  of  British  and  American  policy  to  bring
about;  and  unless  serious  damage  to  much  wider  issues  is  to  ensue  it  is  much  to  be
hoped  that  discussions  between  the  French  and  German  Governments,  directed
towards  a  definitive  settlement  of  the  Saar  question,  will  shortly  be  resumed.
8.  I  am  sending  copies  of  this  despatch  to  Her  Majesty’s  Ambassador  in  Paris  (with
an  extra  copy  which  he  may  care  to  pass  on  to  Her  Majesty’s  Consul-General  at
Strasbourg)  and  to  Her  Majesty’s  Ambassador  at  Washington.
1  have  the  honour  to  be,  with  the  highest  respect,
Sir,
Your  most  obedient,  humble  Servant
(For  the  High  Commissioner)  {JG  Ward}

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